How Obama can save America and become an icon, plus a few other baseball thoughts

First, he's a Lame Duck President, in a liberal party. That means he can get away with "radical" support with 'the greatest of ease'. He needs to help legalize marijuana and online poker. It's that simple. The repeal of prohibition saved us once. Ask Ken Burns. Let's do it again.  This is untapped income. The tax dollars from both would fix the deficit & create jobs in short order. Once he becomes responsible for fixing the economy from the worst recession in history, his legacy is set! My, perhaps flawed & debatable but, logical reasoning. An entire generation of hippies, beatniks and hipsters that smoked weed in the '60's and before,  (Messrs  Armstrong, Crosby, Nelson...et al.) plus  it's young, would make the government BILLIONS of dollars in tax revenue. Tobacco is legal, so is alcohol. Impose the same regulations and taxation. The war on this drug is lost. Take advantage of it. Make some lemonade. In fact, I am thinking of juicing up by joining Alton Brown in buying the Little Debbie distributorship in Colorado (maybe even Washington too) for my next job.  What an impact this could have on the snack food industry. Hey, Frito-Lay, Hostess, Hershey & Papa John, think about some "Lobby money". I hate lobbyists but if we have to have them, they might as well help us by 'accident', while going after their own greedy purpose. At this point, thanks to local government, smoking restrictions and the anti-smoking groups, the consumption of marijuana (an illegal substance) is probably higher than tobacco at this point. Tax it while it's hot. It will get you a lot more than cigarettes does now, and create jobs.  Just do it & control it before you have to fight the "cartel" for control in the now, legal states. This would be an excellent way to save the jobs in the tobacco industry. Go on guys, you are already set up for it! You even have lobbyists. Do you really think I am pointing out something they don't already know? Next, horse race gambling (strictly a game of chance as is the Lottery, which some states are actually thinking of putting online) is already legal online so why ban an actual game of skill?  This could bring in more tax dollars than imaginable. There are millions of players that would play online. The poker  players in the U.S. that are waiting for return of account funds, from the D.O.J, at "Full Tilt Poker", after online poker's "Black Friday", are owed approximately $150 million. What is the tax available on that? That's while it was "illegal" in the U.S. Regulate it, tax it (you are good at that...the tax part anyway) and check out the software, then get us all those tax dollars & programming jobs. It could probably be enough to give most of the U.S. taxpayers a tax cut. You only have a problem with casinos if you shut them out from it. Just don't legalize slots online. Then you could kill the casinos brick & mortar stores. If all the others go legal, online the slots could be next. Oh the dilemma, but what a bunch of revenue for us. Legalize marijuana, that's the obvious one. Think tobacco & alcohol revenue. However, the poker thing could spark a legalization of online sports gambling. I really don't care, but I don't like the idea of having the ability to create an environment that could possibly bring on another "Black Sox Scandal". Even though "tainted" doesn't bother me too much. I just don't want players to try & throw games...in any sport. Especially Hockey & Football, those guys really get beat up for a living.  You would think/hope that the players are making enough now that the amount of gambling "profits" available to "buy a loss" would not be enough to persuade them to throw a game. We can only hope. Thank you Marvin Miller & Curt Flood! As far as steroids in Baseball is concerned, I say (maybe the other sports too, but I don't follow anything but baseball, so I really have no frame of reference)....Juice 'em up & let the balls fly!  If you want to take the risk of killing yourself with steroids, to be better at your sport, then OK. A lot of us wouldn't, but some of us smoke, do drugs, drink, jump out of airplanes or weather balloons from the edge of space & off cliffs with kites. It's all a big risk. We will always take a risk. We are human. SO Lance Armstrong may have been juiced. Even juiced, would YOU have even TRIED to ride a bike in those competitions?  Has anyone, since, from what I read, he wasn't alone when it came to being juiced anyway, ever challenged him, juiced or not juiced? Hey, Mickey Mantle took cortisone since he screwed up his knee in his rookie year. It's kills pain, is a steroid and helps the athlete endure pain beyond the point to where it could cause permanent physical damage. If that's legal, then why not the rest? There was nothing in sports more exciting than McGuire and Sosa's chase for Babe Ruth's record. They are both in the "shadow" of steroids. No one can really match Ruth because of his "conditioning", so they ALL deserve asterisk's, but for a different reason. The real test is for them do it on Babe Ruth's lifestyle. He ate junk and drank alcohol WAY more than today's players. He lived on booze, beer and hot dogs, was overweight & lived a generally unhealthy lifestyle. He had no cortisone. Just a couple of aspirin & a daily Bloody Mary.  To say the least, it isn't a lifestyle emulated by many athletes today. However, Mantle nearly pulled it off, had he not gotten injured & fell behind Maris. C'mon Mark & Sammy....AND Barry. Hit 73/70/66/61...OR EVEN 10.....DRUNK or HUNGOVER DAILY, after eating 33 hot dogs! With or without steroids, 60 Home Runs was/is still an incredible feat, for the time and standards of both eras. Let's not judge the recent records on steroids. Look at their bodies. These  guys were "BUFF" & their records were not easily attained, even with steroids. All they are guilty of is having enough strength to hit a few more, a little further. If Ruth was in shape & on steroids his records would have really been unattainable. Steroids still do not improve eye hand coordination to the point that they can hit .400. It's still the hardest thing to do in any sport. Ted is still King there for the modern era.  So they didn't hit that much better, just farther. SO WHAT? Build up some muscle, make Tony Gwynn your personal hitting coach and if you have the natural talent to be able to see & hit the baseball, then you break everyone’s record. It doesn't happen much, enjoy it while it happens. Oh, one more baseball thing.  PUT PETE ROSE IN THE HALL OF FAME!!! He hustled his ass off! He gambled, and was obsessive about it....but I really think he was competitive enough to where he never bet against a team he was with. Too much ego involved. He lost his ass as a gambler. I'm sure many can relate, but it did not affect his hit record. The gambling ban was created by Landis because the "Black Sox" 'threw' the World Series in 1919. A time when the owners were making tons & paying peanuts while the gamblers paid more. The owners had absolute control over player’s careers & salary (& by the way, before Landis imposed the lifetime ban, the courts found the accused Black Sox innocent!). They have no proof that Pete threw a game. HE IS the all time hit leader. Induct him! Ok, I'm done..... for now.